Basic punctuation Do's and Don’ts of Content Writing

Top Primary Rules for Writing Web Content

Punctuation plays very important role in giving intended meaning to the language. Use of wrong punctuation can change the meaning of the sentence completely and sometimes even convert the sentence to complete nonsense. While writing web content, writers must understand the importance of punctuation. So below are given some primary rules for writing web content.

Hyperlink

If you’re writing a blog and talking about specific business or a site, hyperlink them. Writing URL of the site doesn’t look nice and is not considered as a hyperlink.

Quotation marks (“”)

They are used to mark out speech or when quoting someone else's speech. Always put your punctuation inside your quotation marks.

Commas (,)

It is a pause before proceeding. Don’t be afraid to use them. It separates structural elements of sentences into more manageable segments.

Semicolon (;)

They may not be particularly well suited for web writing. A semicolon is used to join two or more short sentences into one longer sentence. They don’t always lend themselves to more direct sentences.

Hyphen (-)

A hyphen is used to connect individual words within a compound word. The general rule of thumb: Do not hyphenate unless it serves a specific purpose. Whenever unsure whether to hyphenate a word or not, just Google it. Words such as check-in, e-mail, and father-in-law, are always hyphenated.

Capitalization

Headline style capitalization entails capitalizing the first word of all important words in the title and subtitle. 

Slash (/)

Many people use the slash instead of or, and etc., but this is not always helpful to the reader. 

Numbers

Numbers from one to nine should be written in words rest in digits.

Remember that writing for online readers is not the same as writing for print publications such as magazines and newspapers, because you never know who is reading your online content.